The Potter Twins
by Sanura Bey
Summary: Harry is joined on his adventures by his twin sister, Evelyn. Being the spitting image of her mother draws every one's attention along with her legendary escape from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. This is her life now, and she wouldn't change a thing about it. Even with the unwanted attention of a certain Slytherin Prince. **Spans Book/Movie 1-7**
1. The Twins Who Lived

THE TWINS WHO LIVED

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious. They just didn't hold with such nonsense.

Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors. The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.

The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret. Their greatest fear was that somebody would discover this secret. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters. Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years. In fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as abnormal as it was possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Potters arrived at their door. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had two small children, but they had never even seen them. These children were another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with the Potter's children.

* * *

Our story starts on a dull, gray Tuesday. There was nothing about this cloudy day to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. The day started out normal with Mr. Dursley picking out his most boring tie for work and Mrs. Dursley gossiping away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair. Neither of them noticing a large, tawny owl fluttering past the window. And that was only the beginning to the long and confusing day. All over the place Mr. Dursley saw strange men and women in odd cloaks who were gathered talking in whispers. But the strangest thing he saw was a cat was reading a map. For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen and jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat and it stared back at him. As he drove away he had to remind himself that cats couldn't read maps or stare so intently at people as they drove off.

* * *

That night, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat, who was now sitting in front of their house on the wall outside, showed no sign of sleepiness. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street or when two owls swooped overhead. It wasn't until around midnight when a man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail finally twitched and its eyes narrowed. Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive nor would again. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, and both were long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground as he walked in his high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore. Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize or care that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome. He was too busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him and he chuckled.

"I should have known." He muttered as he continued to rummage in his cloak. When he finally found what he was looking for in his inside pocket he pulled it out. It seemed to be a long, silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest light from street lamp seemed to fly into the lighter and he pulled it down into the device. He clicked it again - the next lamp light flew into the lighter. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. This was, of course, the whole point of the Put-Outer. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street towards number four.

"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall." He said smiling at the tabby. In front of his eyes the tabby turned into a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.

"How did you know it was me?" she asked standing up and joining him.

"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly." He told her.

"You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.

"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here." He told her. Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.

"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no - even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls... shooting stars... Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent - I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."

"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."

"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors." She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"

"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"

"A what?" she asked him curiously.

"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of" he explained to her.

"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for such things as lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone -"

"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You- Know-Who' nonsense - for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort." Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."

"I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know-" he gave her an amused look. "Oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of."

"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."

"Only because you're too - well - noble to use them." She replied.

"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs." Dumbledore said causing Professor McGonagall to shoot him a sharp look.

"The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?" It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" had been saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her what was true and what wasn't. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer her questions, asked or otherwise. "What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are - are - that they're - dead." Dumbledore bowed his head which answered her unasked question. Professor McGonagall gasped in shock. "Lily and James... I can't believe it... I didn't want to believe it... Oh, Albus..." Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder.

"I know... I know..." he said heavily. Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on.

"That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's children, Harry and Evelyn. But - he couldn't. He couldn't kill those young children. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Evelyn and Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke - and that's why he's gone." Dumbledore nodded glumly. "It's - it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done... all the people he's killed... he couldn't kill two small children? It's just astounding... of all the things to stop him... but how in the name of heaven did Evelyn and Harry survive?"

"We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know." Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"

"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"

"I've come to bring Evelyn and Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family they have left now." Dumbledore old her.

"You don't mean - you can't mean the people who live here?" cried Professor McGonagall, stepping in front of him stopping them both from the small walk they were taking while pointing at number four. "Dumbledore - you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son - I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Evelyn and Harry Potter come and live here!"

"It's the best place for them," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."

"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, looking at him as though she'd never really seen him before. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand them! They'll be famous - legends - I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Potter day in the future - there will be books written about Evelyn and Harry - every child in our world will know their name!"

"Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any child's head. Famous before they can walk and talk! Famous for something they won't even remember! Can't you see how much better off they'll be, growing up away from all that until they're ready to take it?" Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then nodded.

"Yes - yes, you're right, of course. But how is the children getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding the infants underneath it.

"Hagrid's bringing him." He revealed to her.

"You think it - wise - to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?" she asked him skeptically.

"I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.

"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to - what was that?" A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky - and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them. If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild - long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundles of blankets.

"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"

"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got them, sir."

"No problems, were there?" Dumbledore asked him.

"No, sir - house was almost destroyed, but I got them out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol. But she's been trying to see everything happening around her." Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundles of blankets. Inside, just visible, were two babies. A baby boy, fast asleep, and a baby girl, green eyes taking everything in. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over the boy's forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning. The girl's constant movement allowed them to see a scar on her right shoulder from the top of her shoulder to her arm pit. Both looked incredibly old compared to how new they were.

"Is that where -?" whispered Professor McGonagall.

"Yes," said Dumbledore. "They'll have the scars forever."

"Couldn't you do something about them, Dumbledore?" Professor McGonagall asked him.

"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. Well - give them here, Hagrid - we'd better get this over with." Dumbledore took Evelyn and Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.

"Could I - could I say good-bye to them, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Evelyn and Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Evelyn laughed her baby laugh and tried to pull his hair making him smile lightly before he suddenly let out a howl like a wounded dog.

"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "you'll wake the Muggles!"

"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it - Lily an' James dead - an' poor little Evelyn and Harry off ter live with Muggles -"

"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid the twins gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, and tucked it inside Harry's blanket. He took out his wand and performed a simple sleeping spell on Evelyn and smiled as she closed her eyes before going back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundles; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.

"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."

"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall - Professor Dumbledore, sir." Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.

"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply. Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundles of blankets on the step of number four. "Good luck, Evelyn and Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone. A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Evelyn and Harry Potter rolled over inside their blankets closer to one another without waking up. One of Harry's small hands closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he and his twin were special, not knowing they were famous, not knowing they would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that they would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by their cousin Dudley. They couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices:

"To Evelyn and Harry Potter - the twins who lived!"

* * *

 **Attempt number 2 at a Harry Potter Story. I hope this one goes 100x better than my first one and I hope everyone enjoys this one. If you have anything you see that can be improved or is too much like the book or movie please let me know so I can edit it. Thanks and enjoy :)**


	2. The Vanishing Glass

THE VANISHING GLASS

Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their niece and nephew on the front step. While at first they didn't want to take the two children into their home with their son they did so reluctantly. After all, what would be said about them if they hadn't taken the children in and their abnormalities were discovered? And what if someone could link that to them? They couldn't risk that. So they tossed the letter Dumbledore had left them into a roaring fire and life continued as before. Private Drive had hardly changed in the ten years Evelyn and Harry first arrived on the street as the sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass numbers on the doors. It crept into living rooms, which (in the Dursley's case) was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Dumbledore, McGonagall and Hagrid had left Evelyn and Harry with their relatives. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different colored bonnets, but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby and now the photographs showed a large brunette boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father (who'd lost as expected of said boy), and being hugged and kissed by his mother. If you went by these pictures, no other children lived in this house, but the residents of number four knew better. Evelyn and Harry Potter were still there, much to their unhappiness. While Harry resembled their father's black hair and mother's emerald green eyes Evelyn had her mother's red hair and green eyes. Had anyone other than her aunt seen her and known her mother they would have said they could have been twins though her skin was slightly tanner than her brother's, but that could be from working out in the garden for her aunt, and her eyes seemed to have a black ring separating the brilliant green from the whites of her eyes.

"Up!" they heard their aunt call out to them. "Get up! Now!" the twins woke with a start at her voice and rapping on the door. "Up!" she screeched. Evelyn waited a few more moments, listening to her aunt walk towards the kitchen before getting up. She crawled out of her small bed and, still in her pajamas, walked to the kitchen as a frying pan was placed on the stove.

"Is your brother up yet?" Aunt Petunia asked Evelyn harshly.

"Nearly." the young girl told her. Her and Harry had to take turns changing since they shared the cupboard under the stairs. It was weird, but they were used to it after the ten years of it forced upon them.

"Well, get a move on and start breakfast. And _try_ not to let it burn. I want everything perfect today for Duddy." Petunia told the young girl.

"Yes, Aunt Petunia." Evelyn said before going to the refrigerator and getting the eggs and bacon out. While she was close to the coffee pot she went ahead and started it for her uncle, who would be demanding the caffeinated beverage soon. No one in the house could afford to forget her cousin's birthday. The next Great War would have started in their very house if anyone so much as dreamed to do so. She spared a glance at the mountain of gifts that covered the table. She could see the outline for a new computer, new television and racing bike out of the many shapes. Dudley had gotten fatter as the years had gone by so why he wanted the bike was a mystery to both Potter twins, but there it was sitting next to the table. The only exercise Dudley ever seemed to enjoy was punching people. Punching Harry, to be exact. Dudley rarely ever caught Harry to punch him though. Being smaller had its advantages. The twins had always been small and skinny for their age, though the clothes didn't help how they looked either. The clothes they wore were extremely baggy on them. Harry was forced to wear Dudley's old clothes and while Petunia was forced to buy me clothes it was as cheap as she could find. The only thing unique about them were the scars they had for as long as they can remember. Harry's could be seen by everyone on his forehead while her own was easily hidden away. Harry's was a lightning bolt, which he liked and often joked about. Her own wasn't as delicate as his looked to be. Hers was large and covered most of her shoulder joint in the back dragging from the top of her shoulder to her armpit. When they'd asked their aunt where they'd gotten it she'd told them in the car accident which had taken their parents from them. Evelyn found it odd that the only scars she and her brother had received from such a bad accident were what they had, but didn't question it any further. Don't ask questions was the first rule that the Potter siblings learned so they could live a quiet life with their relatives. Harry entered the kitchen and helped her cook breakfast before Uncle Vernon entered.

"Comb your hair!" he barked before sitting at the table. Harry had to have had more haircuts than anyone we knew from school, but it just grew back all over the place as usual. I was frying the eggs by the time Dudley came into the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon with his mother's hair. He had a large pink face, no neck, small watery blue eyes, and thick brown hair that lay smoothly on his fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel. Harry and Evelyn joked that he looked like a pig with a wig. Evelyn piled three plates with eggs and bacon before placing them on the table in front of where the Dursley's would be sitting that morning and eating. "Hurry up!" Uncle Vernon ordered. "Bring my coffee boy!"

"Yes Uncle Vernon." Harry said getting his coffee for him. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. When he finally got the total in his head his face fell.

"Thirty-six?" he asked him father, who smiled at him proudly. "But last year, last year I had thirty-eight!" he shouted at him.

"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy." His mother told him trying to stop the tantrum before it started.

"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Evelyn quickly put some bacon and eggs on a plate for Harry and herself in the kitchen, seeing the tantrum going out of control. We quickly wolfed them down in case he started throwing things our way. Aunt Petunia obviously scented the same danger because she quickly tried to fix it.

"And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that popkin?" she asked him. "Two more presents. Is that alright?" Dudley thought very hard for a moment before answering her slowly.

"So I'll have thirty… thirty…" he tried doing the math in his head, but he might have busted a few brain cells in the process.

"Thirty-nine, sweetgums," said Aunt Petunia.

"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All night then." Uncle Vernon chuckled.

"Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" he ruffled Dudley's hair. At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while the rest of the family watched him unwrap the bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. He was unwrapping a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried

"Bad news, Vernon." She said drawing the attention of everyone except Dudley. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take them." She said jerking her head in our direction. That got Dudley's attention and he looked up horrified at his parents, but the twin's hearts gave a leap of joy. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants or the movies. Every year, Harry and Evelyn were left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg had photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned. It was a nightmare. "Now what?" Aunt Petunia asked looking furiously at the twins as though they'd planned this. Both children knew they should have felt sorry for Mrs. Figg, but it wasn't easy when they reminded themselves it would be a whole year before they had to look at the cat photos again.

"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.

"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the twins." Aunt Petunia reminded him. The Dursley's often spoke about the twins like this, as though they weren't there, or rather as though they were something very nasty that couldn't understand their language. They watched as their fates for the day were decided for them, never being asked what they wished to do. Even if they put their two sense in their aunt and uncle would never listen to it. Evelyn sometimes thought that when she and her brother did suggest something, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia would decide the opposite just to make them suffer.

"What about what's-her-name, your friend – Yvonne?" Uncle Vernon asked hopeful.

"On Vacation in Majorca." Snapped Aunt Petunia.

"You could just leave us here," Harry put in hopefully. Evelyn shook her head slightly at Harry's suggestion. Aunt Petunia looked at him as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.

"We won't blow up the house," said Harry, but the adults had already turned back to one another ignoring him.

"You know they won't leave us alone here." Evelyn whispered to her brother.

"I just hope they don't find another babysitter." He told me.

"I suppose we could take them to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly. "And leave them in the car…" This perked up both twins' heads. Even if they left them alone in the car, they could find ways to amuse themselves.

"That car's new, they're not sitting in it alone…" Uncle Vernon began telling her when Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact he wasn't really crying, but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his parents would give him anything he wanted.

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.

"I… don't… want… them… t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge pretend sobs. "They always sp-spoil everything!" Dudley shot the twins a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms. Evelyn clenched her fists by her side and glared at him. Just then the doorbell rang.

"Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically. A moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat, which Evelyn thought suited him nicely. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. At the sight of his friend, Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.

* * *

Half an hour later, the Potter twins couldn't believe their luck. They were being taken to the zoo and not left in the car like Aunt Petunia had wanted. They all began to pile in the car, but before they could get in Uncle Vernon pulled them to the side.

"I'm warning you," he said, putting his large purple face right up close to ours. "I'm warning you now – any funny business, anything at all – and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

"We're not going to do anything," Harry tried appeasing him, "honestly…" But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him, no one ever did. The problem was strange things often happened around the Potter siblings and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen. No matter how odd it seemed offense seemed to be. Once, Aunt Petunia tried cutting Harry's hair after he'd returned home from the barbers looking as though he'd never gone in the first place. She'd cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she'd only left to hide his scar. Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry and Evelyn nearly hit him for the first time in her life. School would've been torture for Harry the next day at the laughs of everyone. They were both already picked on because of their clothes, and this would add wood to the fire. The next morning, however, they had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before and Dudley sick in bed for the weeks that followed. Harry had been given a week in the cupboard for this and Evelyn had been locked away until Dudley had gotten better.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with the Dursleys and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, their cupboard, Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room. Uncle Vernon was complaining about something all the way to the zoo, but Evelyn didn't care what it was as she watched outside the window. She hated this life of theirs. She didn't hate being with her brother, that was her only shining light in their ten years, but she had a feeling there was somewhere else they belonged. She was angry a lot of the time and had managed to manipulate her way out of a lot of things in her life, but the same couldn't be said of Harry. Harry just took the punishments as though he deserved them.

* * *

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursley's bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because Evelyn made sure she was seen close to them and the smiling lady in the van asked what she and Harry would want before they could hurry them off, they bought them a cheap ice pop. It wasn't bad, both Harry and Evelyn mused to each other from behind their family. The Potter twins had the best morning they'd had in a long time. They were careful after getting their ice cream to walk a little way apart from the Dursley's so that Dudley and Piers, who were getting bored with the animals, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of attacking them. They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another and gave the first to Harry who shared with his twin.

* * *

After lunch, they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see a huge, poisonous cobra and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can, but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it looked asleep. Dudley stood staring at it with his nose pressed as close to the glass as he could get, staring at the glistening brown coils.

"Make it move," he ordered at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge. Dudley banged on the glass hard glaring at the snake. "Move!"

"Leave him alone! He's asleep!" Evelyn told him. Dudley took a look at her glaring face and a shiver ran down his spine.

"This is boring." Dudley moaned before him, his parents and Piers shuffled away. Harry just moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake with his sister standing next to him.

"If this snake hadn't died of boredom in this place, nothing will kill him." Evelyn joked with her brother making him smile.

"This is worse than the cupboard." He noted. "At least we get the rest of the house once we wake up.

"Only if we don't make the family angry." She reminded him. They watched as the snake suddenly opened its beady black eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with the twins before winking at them. Evelyn's eyes widened as Harry looked around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. Harry turned back to the snake and smiled at it before Evelyn sent her own wink to the snake. The snake jerked it head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised it eyes to the ceiling and gave the twins a look.

"They do that all the time at home too." Evelyn told him.

"Yeah." Harry agreed. "It must be even more annoying here." The snake nodded vigorously agreeing with him. "Where do you come from, anyway?"

"The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass and the twins peered at it. Boa Constrictor, Brazil.

"Was it nice there?" Evelyn asked excitedly. The snake looked at a sign in the cage that read: Bred in captivity. "Oh, so you've never left this place?" As the snake nodded once more a deafening shout behind the twins made them jump.

"DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!" Piers and Dudley ran (or waddled) towards the twins as fast as they could.

"Out of the way, you two," Dudley said once he and his friend were close enough to push the Potter twins out of in front of the snake. The twins fell into a pile on the floor and watched as Piers and Dudley leaned against the glass before falling in the water they'd provided the snake. The great snake uncoiled itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor in front of the twins. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits. The snake looked at the two of them and nodded his head.

"Thanksss, amigo." It hissed at them.

"No problem." The twins said together before watching the snake slither out of the reptile house. The two boys in the cage got up and tried getting out when they started pounding on the glass that had reappeared. They started screaming which caused Aunt Petunia to scream for her 'Darling boy'.

* * *

That night found Harry and Evelyn in their cupboard all because Piers had mentioned that they were talking to the snake. Uncle Vernon had locked them in their cupboard only allowing them out for the bathroom and for her to cook them supper and take a small portion for both her and her brother.


End file.
